The Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes, and said to have been written by Zarathustra (Zoroaster), refers to bhang as Zoroaster's "good narcotic" (Vendidad or The Law Against Demons) (link to zoroaster evidence? texts?)

700 B.C. - 300 B.C.

Scythian tribes leave Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs

500 B.C.

Scythian couple die and are buried (at grave site in Pazryk, nothwest of the Tien Shan Mountains in modern-day Khazakstan) with two small tents covering censors. Attached to one tent stick was a decorated leather pouch containing wild Cannabis seeds. Unknown whether this was for purely ritual or also intoxicating use of Cannabis. (link to info about the discovery?)

430 B.C.

Herodotus reports on both ritual and recreation use of Cannabis by the Scythians (Herodotus The Histories 430 B.C. trans. G. Rawlinson) (link)

Scholars debate the pros and cons of eating hashish. Use spreads throughout Arabia

1090 A.D. - 1256 A.D.

In Khorasan, Persia, Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain, recruits followers to commit assassinations...legends develop around their supposed use of hashish. These legends are some of the earliest written tales of the discovery of the inebriating powers of Cannabis and the supposed use of Hashish. 1256 Alamut falls (links)

1155 A.D. - 1221 A.D.

Persian legend of the Sufi master Sheik Haidar's of Khorasan's personal discovery of Cannabis and it's subsequent spread to Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria. Another of the ealiest written narratives of the use of Cannabis as an inebriant. (link)

Early 12th Century

Hashish smoking very popular throughout the Middle East.

12th Century A.D.

Cannabis introduced in Egypt during the reign of the Ayyubid dynasty on the occasion of the flooding of Egypt by mystic devotees coming from Syria (M.K. Hussein 1957 - Soueif 1972)

1231 A.D.

Hashish introduced to Iraq in the reign of Caliph Mustansir (Rosenthal 1971)

1271 A.D. -1295 A.D.

Journeys of Marco Polo in which he gives second-hand reports of the story of Hasan ibn al-Sabbah and his "assassins" using hashish. (link)

13th Century A.D.

The oldest monograph on hashish, Zahr al-'arish fi tahrim al-hashish, was written. It has since been lost.

13th Century A.D.

Ibn al-Baytar of Spain provides a description of psychoactive Cannabis

1378 A.D.

Ottoman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issues one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish. (link)

1526 A.D.

Babur Nama, first emperor and founder of Mughal Empire learned of hashish in Afghanistan.

mid 16th Century A.D.

The epic poem, Benk u Bode, by the poet Mohammed Ebn Soleiman Foruli of Baghdad, deals allegorically with a dialectical battle between wine and hashish.

17th Century A.D.

Use of hashish, alcohol, and opium spreads among the population of occupied Constantinople

Late 17th Century A.D.

Hashish becomes a major trade item between Central Asia and South Asia

1798

Napoleon discovers that much of the Egyptian lower class habitually uses hashish (Kimmens 1977). He declares a total prohibition. Soldiers returning to France bring the tradition with them.

19th Century A.D.

Hashish production expands from Russian Turkestan into Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan

1809

Antoine Sylvestre de Sacy, a leading Arabist, reveals the etymology of the words "assassin" and "hashishin"

1840

In America, medicinal preparations with a Cannabis base are available. Hashish available in Persian pharmacies.

1843

Le Club des Hachichins, or Hashish Eater's Club, established in Paris

after 1850

Hashish appears in Greece

1856

British tax ganja and charas trade in India

c 1875

Cultivation for hashish introduced to Greece

1870 - 1880

First reports of hashish smoking on Greek mainland

1877

Kerr reports on Indian ganja and charas trade.

1890

Greek Department of Interior prohibits importance, cultivation and use of hashish.

since 1890

Hashish made illegal in Turkey

1893-1894

The India Hemp Drugs Commission Report is issued. (link to schaffer)

1893-1894

70,000 to 80,000 kg of hashish legally imported into India from Central Asia each year.

Atharvaveda- Science of Charms 11:6.15, trans. by Aldrich
Five kingdoms of plants, with Soma as their chief, we address: Soma, darbha, bhanga, saha, yava; may free us from distress.

Shiva became enraged by some family squabble and went off by himself in the fields. There, the cool shade of a tall marijuana plant brought him a comforting refuge from the torrid rays of the blazing sun. Curious about this plant that sheltered him from the heat of the day, he ate some of its leaves and felt so refreshed that he adopted it as his favorite food, hence his title, the 'Lord of Bhang'.
Herodotus Books 1 and 4 (trans. by G. Rawlinson)[1.202] As for the Araxes, it is, according to some accounts, larger, according to others smaller than the Ister (Danube). It has islands in it, many of which are said to be equal in size to Lesbos. The men who inhabit them feed during the summer on roots of all kinds, which they dig out of the ground, while they store up the fruits, which they gather from the trees at the fitting season, to serve them as food in the winter-time. Besides the trees whose fruit they gather for this purpose, they have also a tree which bears the strangest produce. When they are met together in companies they throw some of it upon the fire round which they are sitting, and presently, by the mere smell of the fumes which it gives out in burning, they grow drunk, as the Greeks do with wine. More of the fruit is then thrown on the fire, and, their drunkenness increasing, they often jump up and begin to dance and sing. Such is the account which I have heard of this people.

[4.73] Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are buried: as for the people, when any one dies, his nearest of kin lay him upon a waggon and take him round to all his friends in succession: each receives them in turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat the dead man is served with a portion of all that is set before the others; this is done for forty days, at the end of which time the burial takes place. After the burial, those engaged in it have to purify themselves, which they do in the following way. First they well soap and wash their heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act as follows: they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones, and then add some hemp-seed.

[4.74] Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like flax; only that it is a much coarser and taller plant: some grows wild about the country, some is produced by cultivation: the Thracians make garments of it which closely resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that if a person has never seen hemp he is sure to think they are linen, and if he has, unless he is very experienced in such matters, he will not know of which material they are.

[4.75] The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this vapour serves them instead of a water-bath; for they never by any chance wash their bodies with water. Their women make a mixture of cypress, cedar, and frankincense wood, which they pound into a paste upon a rough piece of stone, adding a little water to it. With this substance, which is of a thick consistency, they plaster their faces all over, and indeed their whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby imparted to them, and when they take off the plaster on the day following, their skin is clean and glossy.